In order to fulfill the different customers' requirements, different surface mount optoelectronic component configurations are available in the market today. Two key physical variations normally discussed for optoelectronic components are illumination direction and lead bending.
For illumination direction, customers may opt for either a top or side illumination version. As the name implies, top illuminators have an illumination source on a top portion of the optoelectronic component surface, while side illuminators have a source on a side surface of the optoelectronic component. The choice depends very much on the application itself. However, each of these configurations is unique in terms of physical dimension and is not interchangeable. Customers are expected to order the specific type of configuration for their needs.
As for lead bending, common versions available in the market include J-bend, gull-wing, reverse gull-wing, etc. These are the configurations used for connecting the mounting connections to sub-systems, such as PCBs. Based on current market information, there are still no surface mount optoelectronic packages available that do not require mechanical forming processes to create the desired mounting connections.